Sustainable MPA Management– Experiences from more than 10 years of private MPA

management on Chumbe Island, Zanzibar TanzaniaFrida Lanshammar and Lina Nordlund, Chumbe Island Coral Park, chumbe@zitec.org

IntroductionAn common obstacle to successful management of Marine Protected Areas is that governments tend to assign low priority and insufficient financial resources to pay for the infrastructure, training, education, and other management costs. This has led to a large number of so called 'paper parks‘ – parks that only exist in the books, where no active management is present. Well managed eco-tourism can provide a sustainable income for conservation and management of threatened ecosystems. A good example is Chumbe Island Coral Park Ltd. (CHICOP), a private company established in 1991 for the conservation of the reef and forest of Chumbe Island – a small, uninhabited coral island of 22 ha, located 8 miles southwest of Zanzibar town, Tanzania.

Sustainable funding through eco-tourismThe conservation efforts, the park management as well as the environmental education are all totally funded by income generated from the small eco-lodge established on the island in 1998. While the operations of CHICOP follow commercial principles, the project objectives remain non-commercial. Since 2000, the running costs of the MPA management are fully covered by the revenue generated from the tourism activities on the Island.All developments on Chumbe are based on state-of-the-art eco-technology that uses renewable low-impact water and energy management and it is all combined with traditional building material and traditional design. Employment of people from local communities is encouraged whenever possible.

Acknowledgements The Chumbe team, and the founder and Director Sibylle Riedmiller, WIOMSA for funding travelling costs for the presenter. Background reef photo by Oskar Henriksson. Other photos by Frida Lanshammar and the Chumbe Team

Advisory Committee, management plans and community involvementCHICOP and the Ministry of Agriculture signed a management agreement in 1994 and Chumbe became the first privately managed MPA in the world. It was decided that a detailed management plan should be produced and that an Advisory Committee should be established. This committee meets twice per year to discuss recent performance, come with suggestions for future actions and to make sure important goals are reached.The first Management Plan (1996-2006) was reviewed and updated in 2006 (valid until 2016). The management plans encourages transparent management and wide stakeholder participation, which is achieved by the regular Advisory Committee meetings as well as annual village meetings. Internal meetings are arranged twice per year to evaluate achievements and developments according to the targets and priority areas.

AchievementsThe coral reef on Chumbe is the most diverse reef in the region with around 200 species of coral and 400 species of fish. The reef has shown higher resilience than other nearby reefs and local fishers report higher catch close to MPA borders. The Environmental Education program on the island has so far invited more than 4,000 students and 800 teachers for practical field excursions since the start in 1994 and is incredibly popular. CHICOP has over the years won many prestigious awards for eco-tourism and conservation efforts.

Of the 43 full time staff – 63% come from local communities and only 4.8% are foreigners. Around 30% work with the conservation and education programmes.

Local girl students learning how to snorkel on a daytrip to Chumbe.

Head ranger Omari talking to a group of local seaweed farmers and fishermen.

Chumbe Advisory Committee has members from CHICOP, the local village leaders, the Dept of Fisheries, Forestry and Environment and is chaired by the District Commissioner.

The eco-lodge has around 1,500 visitors per year and uses pioneer eco-architecture such as 100% solar power, rain water harvesting, natural grey water filtration systems and compost toilets.